IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedawp/98-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Voluntary disclosure under imperfect competition: Experimental evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Lucy F. Ackert
  • Bryan K. Church
  • Mandira Roy Sankar

Abstract

This study investigates disclosure behavior when a manager has incentives to influence the actions of a product market competitor in a Cournot duopoly. Theoretical research suggests that under various conditions the manager has incentives to withhold some signals and disclose others. Using an experimental economics method, we find support for partial information disclosure. Our results suggest that when the manager receives private information about industrywide cost, unfavorable (favorable) information is disclosed (withheld) and the competitor adjusts production accordingly. In contrast, when the manager receives private information about firm-specific cost, disclosure behavior is not affected by the favorableness of the information and the competitor's production decision is invariant to the disclosure choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucy F. Ackert & Bryan K. Church & Mandira Roy Sankar, 1998. "Voluntary disclosure under imperfect competition: Experimental evidence," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 98-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedawp:98-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.atlantafed.org/-/media/documents/research/publications/wp/1998/wp9807.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara & Andrew Postlewaite & Kotaro Suzumura, 1990. "Strategic Information Revelation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(1), pages 25-47.
    2. Patell, Jm, 1976. "Corporate Forecasts Of Earnings Per Share And Stock-Price Behavior - Empirical Tests," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 246-276.
    3. Richard N. Clarke, 1983. "Collusion and the Incentives for Information Sharing," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 383-394, Autumn.
    4. Grossman, Sanford J, 1981. "The Informational Role of Warranties and Private Disclosure about Product Quality," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 461-483, December.
    5. Gal-Or, Esther, 1985. "Information Sharing in Oligopoly," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(2), pages 329-343, March.
    6. Ronald R. King & David E. Wallin, 1990. "The effects of antifraud rules and ex post verifiability on managerial disclosures," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(2), pages 859-892, March.
    7. Boyan Jovanovic, 1982. "Truthful Disclosure of Information," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(1), pages 36-44, Spring.
    8. Paul R. Milgrom, 1981. "Good News and Bad News: Representation Theorems and Applications," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 380-391, Autumn.
    9. Dye, Ra, 1985. "Disclosure Of Nonproprietary Information," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 123-145.
    10. Lev, B & Penman, Sh, 1990. "Voluntary Forecast Disclosure, Nondisclosure, And Stock-Prices," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 49-76.
    11. Peter M. Clarkson & Jennifer L. Kao & Gordon D. Richardson, 1994. "The Voluntary Inclusion of Forecasts in the MD&A Section of Annual Reports," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 423-450, June.
    12. Robert Forsythe & R. Mark Isaac & Thomas R. Palfrey, 1989. "Theories and Tests of "Blind Bidding" in Sealed-Bid Auctions," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(2), pages 214-238, Summer.
    13. Jung, Wo & Kwon, Yk, 1988. "Disclosure When The Market Is Unsure Of Information Endowment Of Managers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 146-153.
    14. Vives, Xavier, 1984. "Duopoly information equilibrium: Cournot and bertrand," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 71-94, October.
    15. G.A. Feltham & J.Z. Xie, 1992. "Voluntary financial disclosure in an entry game with continua of types," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 46-80, September.
    16. Wagenhofer, Alfred, 1990. "Voluntary disclosure with a strategic opponent," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 341-363, March.
    17. Cason, Timothy N. & Friedman, Daniel, 1996. "Price formation in double auction markets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1307-1337, August.
    18. Alison J. Kirby, 1988. "Trade Associations as Information Exchange Mechanisms," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(1), pages 138-146, Spring.
    19. Penman, Sh, 1980. "An Empirical-Investigation Of The Voluntary Disclosure Of Corporate-Earnings Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 132-160.
    20. Darrough, Masako N. & Stoughton, Neal M., 1990. "Financial disclosure policy in an entry game," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1-3), pages 219-243, January.
    21. King, Ronald R. & Wallin, David E., 1995. "Experimental tests of disclosure with an opponent," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 139-167, February.
    22. King, Rr & Wallin, De, 1991. "Voluntary Disclosures When Seller Level Of Information Is Unknown," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 96-108.
    23. Xavier Vives, 1990. "Trade Association Disclosure Rules, Incentives to Share Information, and Welfare," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(3), pages 409-430, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jos Jansen & Andreas Pollak, 2014. "Strategic Disclosure of Demand Information by Duopolists: Theory and Experiment," Economics Working Papers 2014-20, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    2. Jos Jansen & Andreas Pollak, 2015. "Strategic Disclosure of Demand Information by Duopolists: Theory and Experiment," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2015_09, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    3. David Kopanyi & Anita Kopanyi-Peuker, 2015. "Endogenous information disclosure in experimental oligopolies," Discussion Papers 2015-11, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    4. Kazunori Miwa, 2021. "An Experimental Study on Information Acquisition and Disclosure in a Cournot Duopoly Market," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 13-01-Rev, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    5. Dmitry A. Shapiro & Jaesun Lee, 2022. "Revealing Negative Information in Monopoly and Duopoly Settings: Experimental Analysis," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 38, pages 167-205.
    6. Kazunori Miwa, 2013. "The Impact of Mandatory Disclosure on Information Acquisition: Theory and Experiment," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 13-01, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    7. Liang Guo, 2009. "The Benefits of Downstream Information Acquisition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 457-471, 05-06.
    8. Jos Jansen & Andreas Pollak, 2014. "Strategic Disclosure of Demand Information by Duopolists: Theory and Experiment," Working Paper Series in Economics 75, University of Cologne, Department of Economics.
    9. Jos Jansen, 2008. "Information Acquisition and Strategic Disclosure in Oligopoly," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 113-148, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. King, Ronald R. & Wallin, David E., 1995. "Experimental tests of disclosure with an opponent," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 139-167, February.
    2. Konrad Lang, 2018. "Voluntary Disclosure and Analyst Forecast," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 23-36, January.
    3. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    4. Greg Clinch & Robert E. Verrecchia, 1997. "Competitive Disadvantage and Discretionary Disclosure in Industries," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 22(2), pages 125-137, December.
    5. Verrecchia, Robert E., 2001. "Essays on disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 97-180, December.
    6. Bruce Ian Carlin & Shaun William Davies & Andrew Miles Iannaccone, 2010. "Competing for Attention in Financial Markets," NBER Working Papers 16085, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Peter M. Clarkson & Jennifer L. Kao & Gordon D. Richardson, 1994. "The Voluntary Inclusion of Forecasts in the MD&A Section of Annual Reports," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 423-450, June.
    8. Richard Frankel & Joshua Lee & Zawadi Lemayian, 2018. "Proprietary costs and sealing documents in patent litigation," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 452-486, June.
    9. Peter M. Clarkson & Jennifer L. Kao & Gordon D. Richardson, 1994. "La présentation volontaire d'information à caractère prévisionnel dans le rapport de gestion intégré aux rapports annuels," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 451-488, June.
    10. Fischer, Paul E. & Verrecchia, Robert E., 2004. "Disclosure bias," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 223-250, December.
    11. Einhorn, Eti, 2007. "Voluntary disclosure under uncertainty about the reporting objective," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 245-274, July.
    12. Ganesh Iyer & Shubhranshu Singh, 2022. "Persuasion Contest: Disclosing Own and Rival Information," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(4), pages 682-709, July.
    13. Thakor, Anjan V., 2015. "Strategic information disclosure when there is fundamental disagreement," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 131-153.
    14. Anne Beyer & Ilan Guttman, 2012. "Voluntary Disclosure, Manipulation, and Real Effects," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 1141-1177, December.
    15. Suijs, Jeroen, 2007. "Voluntary disclosure of information when firms are uncertain of investor response," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 391-410, July.
    16. Arya, Anil & Mittendorf, Brian, 2013. "Discretionary disclosure in the presence of dual distribution channels," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 168-182.
    17. Anil Arya & Hans Frimor & Brian Mittendorf, 2010. "Discretionary Disclosure of Proprietary Information in a Multisegment Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 645-658, April.
    18. Gerald A. Feltham & Frank B. Gigler & John S. Hughes, 1992. "The effects of line†of†business reporting on competition in oligopoly settings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, September.
    19. Malueg, David A. & Tsutsui, Shunichi O., 1996. "Duopoly information exchange: The case of unknown slope," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 119-136.
    20. Young Jun Cho, 2015. "Segment Disclosure Transparency and Internal Capital Market Efficiency: Evidence from SFAS No. 131," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 669-723, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information theory; Microeconomics;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedawp:98-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Rob Sarwark (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbatus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.